For technical reasons outside of RME’s scope, sample rate needs to follow USB when connected, no way around that.

To switch Modes with a single button:
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 94#p193294

You can store and use a “Setup” for each “Mode” and complete configuration needed..

Loading certain “Setups” can be assigned to a button push on the device or IR Remote.

Watch out:
The  “Remap key” configuration is part of each individual “Setup” and needs to be set for each individual “Setup”.
This can be used to toggle through 2 or more Setups with one single button.

Works like this:
As the button assignment isn’t global, but part of each “Setup”, you can even have different assignments to the same button in each Setup - a nice feature that we can use for the following:

Choose ONE single button that you usually don’t need.
In Setup 1 assign: “load Setup 2”
In Setup 2 assign: “load Setup 1”
Now this single button toggles between both Setups.

This method can be extended to load even more Setups if needed, like:
In Setup 1 assign: “load Setup 2”
In Setup 2 assign: “load Setup 3”
In Setup 3 assign: “load Setup 4”
In Setup 4 assign: “load Setup 1”
Now the single button circles through Setup 1-4, clever, isn’t it?!

As for loading Setups ADI-2 asks for confirmation, a double-push is needed to execute the load.
Holding the button more than 1s, the button‘s original function is available.
Therefore I typically assign the SETUP button to load Setups – sic!

> Still, it's a bit annoying that all changes to configuration have to be repeated again for every setup.

You can save the setup to multiple config slots, then everything has equal config.
As a last step, modify config for only the toggling part and the particular changes that you want to achieve.

And … you have ADI-2 Remote additionally.

Yes, I read the manual and the different modes quite carefully, and decided the DAC mode is otherwise closest to what I want: I can use the IR remote buttons to switch between inputs (I have all of them connected) and I get the same output on both rear XLR and front headphones 3/4 (connected to studio monitors and headphones, respectively).

As I said in the original post, this is very close to the perfect device for me, just these two little annoyances: unable to set sample rate of the ADC manually in this mode if the computer is off, and unable to route the ADC signal to the digital output (independent of which input is used for DAC).

Ideally the selection would be available with USB host offline, even if the cable is plugged in, but yes, this is what I am asking for. (Also good point about including it for the SRC!)

Yes, I understand how to do it, but it still means manually replicating the change as many times as there are setups, and then I have to remember what the exact differences in each setup are, etc. (My job nowadays as a software engineer consists mostly of reducing friction from user experiences, so I'm perhaps less willing than the "normal user" to accept these kinds of limitations, when I spend my days removing them from other software. But I appreciate the helpful responses, and of course I will use the solution if the suggestion for firmware improvement is not implemented.)

Yes, I agree, presets do the job, but there are more steps for the user to do it this way. For example, let's say I always want the digital output to be the pre-volume ADC signal, but I want the analog outputs to work like in DAC mode:

Currently: It seems only the AD/DA mode does this routing of ADC to digital out, so I need to create a separate setup for every input signal that I want to monitor (AES, S/PDIF, analog). I can do that, and I can map those setups to the IR remote buttons so I can switch the monitoring. However, to make one little tweak in settings, I need to repeat it 3 times. Yes, doable, but seems unnecessary. (Additionally, USB monitoring on analog 1/2 outputs doesn't seem to be available in AD/DA mode, so I need an extra setup for that in a different mode, and I'm not sure if it is even possible to combine this with the ADC to digital output.)

Proposed change: There is an existing setting "Dig. Out Source". It has two options: "Default" and "Main Out". Add "Analog" to this menu (and why not also S/PDIF and AES?). Then I can use DAC mode, one Setup, simply choose "Analog" from the "Dig. Out Source".

I would argue that this is doesn't add any complexity to users who do not want this feature - the menu already exists, and the "Default" option that is currently there is arguably harder to understand (you need to check the manual for what it means in each basic mode).

(Alternative proposed change: make the DAC Source select buttons work in AD/DA mode as well - currently it just gives an error message saying that this only works in DAC mode, so it would not remove any functionality from other modes.)

Anyway, I'm not saying the current situation is bad: it can be done as per above, but IMO would be objectively improved by the proposed change.

The main thing I'd like to see is the ability to change the sample rate from the device menu when USB is offline. This option is currently present in the menu but grayed out.

@Arkku
All you requests are spot on and are annoying limitations of the ADI-2 Pro
- no manual input selection by name of the digital output
- no manual SR selection for AES and SPIDIF to upsample these inputs
- input selection via remote control only possible in DAC mode

BTW: I do not use the USB input for sources at all due to its dominant SR behavior in AD/DA mode for all sources.
However if you want to use the ADI-2 remote app you have to connect the ADI-2 via USB with a computer, which reminds me to the 80‘s where you had to connect the remote control via cable with the tape deck!

I think the penny didn't drop yet, that RME was so kind to the customers, to implement this via USB....

This way all customers can use the ADI-2 Remote software for all existing ADI-2 DAC/Pro, ADI-2/4 Pro SE products.
Everything by firmware update, for all devices and free of charge.

The alternative would have been to design new devices and to decide over which type of I/O the remote control should happen. This would raise additional requirements not only for the ADI, but also the computer.

So I think everybody is happy about not having to buy new devices to get such a feature.

This is btw the big advantage of RME devices … Long firmware and driver support … Additional value for customers.
Therefore, you have a certain stability in worth and get still good prices on the used market if you had to sell.

Well, but you don't need the remote control via ADI-2 Remote/USB all the time.
As soon as everything is set up, you can use the normal remote control (except for the older devices without remote).

Whether studio or hi-fi corner, I am using two devices here. I've been using the same settings for years.
All that I require is volume control and in rare cases an adjustment of Bass and Treble.

I feel we are getting off-topic here, and at least I don't personally have a problem with the device in general (quite the opposite, it's 99% excellent for my use). However, these are indeed limitations that I think can be fixed by a firmware update:

Especially the lack of SR selection from the device when USB is not in use was a surprise to me – the option is in the menu and I read the manual before purchasing and didn't think for a moment that sample rate selection would be disabled in the menu if USB is disconnected. For example, if the last time I've used USB it has been at 44.1 kHz for CD quality audio, and I want to use the RIAA mode I would like to change it to 192 kHz without starting the computer.